Raymond Pettibon: The Books 1978–1998 — D.A.P., 2000 — Complete Reprints of 32 Artist Books

Description

For two decades beginning in the late 1970s, Raymond Pettibon’s self-published booklets and zines circulated primarily through merch tables and SST records—his book objects were as raw, immediate, and subcultural as the scenes that embraced them. The Books 1978–1998 gathers his early publications in facsimile form, reproducing thirty complete titles along with two previously unpublished works from Pettibon’s archive. Long out of print, this D.A.P. English-language edition (following the original German publication by Walther König) remains the most comprehensive document of Pettibon’s early artist-book years, the era in which his blend of text, image, philosophy, and provocation took its most experimental shape.

Roberto Ohrt’s introductory essay, “The Abandoned Decades,” contextualizes Pettibon’s world: post-punk Los Angeles, DIY music culture, and the strange, elastic language that became his hallmark. The volume is a meticulous catalogue raisonné of the book works—A New Wave of Violence, Capricious Missives, The Observable World, One Foot in the Mouth, To Illustrate and Multiply, and so many others—reprinted at original scale. For collectors of artist books, underground graphics, and contemporary art history, this is the cornerstone Pettibon volume, both massive and indispensable. And unless you’ve got a lot of money and time to assemble all 30 titles in their original form, this book is a must-have.

A sharp, VG- copy of the definitive Pettibon book. Essential for anyone collecting artist books, punk-era graphics, or the broader Pettibon universe.